So the group Alzheimer’s Disease International has released its 2009 World Alzheimer Report, in which it predicts that the number of people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other dementias will double every twenty years for the foreseeable future. By 2050, they calculate, the figure will reach 115.4 million worldwide....more

So I’m finding it a wee bit difficult to concentrate today because Tink has come down with a fever and sore throat. Well, more specifically, because she has come down with a fever and sore throat after getting the intranasal live-virus H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine on Monday. ...more

Paw used to like to tell this story: Once there was a dog that took up at our house. She was a fairly large yellow dog, gentle and ingratiating. The kind that follows you, and follows you, and follows you everywhere. ...more

So Paw’s baby brothers are closer in age to Gary and me than they are to Paw. Both are successful business owners, well into their second marriages, with so many kids and grandkids between them that I feel uncomfortable asking about them, afraid I’ll make hurtful mistakes with names and relationships. ...more

So I escape to the front step, a naughty child. Chastened. Massively guilty. And angrier than ever. I look at the truck and think of leaving, for good. Of calling Maw and saying, you’ll just have to get somebody else. I see the throngs of people out, on this warm September night. Jogging, skateboarding, walking their dogs. What would our lives be like, without Maw and Paw?...more

So, I am not sure what to say. I have upset Maw. She has been in the bed five days with a virus of some kind (I have been telling people she caught the bubonic plague in the emergency room, but that’s not what she’s upset about.) ...more

I think it’s an understatement to say that this really rattled me. Hot tears erupted all over my new therapist. (What should I call her? Clearly, C.J. Craig. Hah. Didn’t even need Gary for that one.) I wanted to know if somehow I was causing Maw’s nausea. Claudia Jean put the kibosh on that idea. “Maybe she just tries harder not to do it when your husband’s around because she doesn’t feel comfortable with him,” she offered.
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Enter Maw’s new doctor. (Gary’s never met her, so he’s no help in picking out a character name.) The thing is, this lady actually looks like Patti Duke, so trying to name her something else hurts my brain. She looks so much like Patti Duke I almost, almost, asked her if she used to be an actress. But then I quickly calculated that she can’t be any more than five years older than me, so she couldn’t really be Patti Duke. I do think she qualifies as a miracle worker, though. Okay. Dr. Anne Sullivan. (You know. Helen Keller? Annie Sullivan? The Miracle Worker?)
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So, I was going to find movie star or at least movie character names for all our doctors. I’ve been finding it difficult – I think Dr. Loren was a pretty sad choice – but Gary has a real gift for it. When I decided to write about Maw’s old doctor, he immediately suggested Georgette Baxter, from the Mary Tyler Moore show. Absolutely perfect. Exactly what I wanted to convey about this person. So perfect, in fact, that I will be deferring to Gary for all doctor names now.
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So when it comes to immutable truths of the universe, I have a couple of additions to point out. First, whenever Gary and I try to take a day trip with the girls, Maw will fall and hurt herself, and we will have to come back early. Second, whenever Gary goes on a business trip, Maw will need to be taken to the emergency room.
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